Keyboard Patches

[dbuckley]

Yes, amateur orchestras. Our local musicals society did Chess a couple of years ago, and it was Chess by Jazz I kid you not, they had no rock intrumentation. At least for JCS they brought in an (distorted) electric guitar, but I felt quite sorry for the majority of the orchestra who sat cramped up in the pit with virtually nopthing to do.

 

I've seen Chess done with keys / gtr / bass / kit and it was much more satisfying than the full orchestral trreatment.

[tom_the_LD]

I often play for local Am-Dram groups and have done drums/percussion as well as keyboards.

 

When we did Nunsense, which I was drums/perc for and my dad did the second keyboard part, the numbers in that were not general midi patches (although the GM ones were close in most cases), but did in fact refer to the specific synth used for the show when the score was written; which we didn't know so ended up just listening and working it out!

 

I'm a percussionist that can read dots as well as drum music - something not as common as you may think! So I often find myself doing the shows which have a kit and percussion part combined; such as Beauty And The Beast, which I did just recently! To me, in this scenario, my electric kit is vital (DTXtreme III Special). I say this because whilst it may not sound as great as an acoustic, I have every percussion instrument (well certainly most) at my fingertips. Whether that be a triangle, tambourine or a shaker so instead of having to take loads of instruments and swap between them, I can record "patches" in advance and then load them in as and when. I also take my keyboard along to handle any tuned percussion - glocks/xylo/marimba.

 

So, let's look at Beauty And The Beast. When I got the score I sat down and made a collection of "useful" patched/kits - so I had one which was just a complete kit, one which had the toms as Timps A and G, Tambourine and Woodblock, another which was a different tuning of timps with woodblock and tambourine etc. I then linked my electric kit up via MIDI to my Macbook Pro along with my keyboard (which I also linked up via MIDI), to Mainstage. I then set up a "Cue List" (patch list) in Mainstage and created a set of "Cues" (patches), which I labelled Cue 1, Cue 2 etc., which sent a MIDI signal to the electric drum kit to load in the required custom drum kit. Now, depending on the Cue, it would also load in a sample for the keyboard - which meant that when it was required it would load in a glock or a xylo or whatever. I chose this method as the sounds on Mainstage are actually better than on the keyboard!

 

I hope that makes some sense and is of some use!

 

 

Any more questions then do please ask!

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Tom

[Kingstech]

Exactly what got me looking for the Mamma Mia Patches, as the 4 keyboards have A, B, C or D in the book they all had a A001, A002 - etc, no idea what half of them are, as you said its just listen and figure out.

 

Yeah that makes sense, you said your using a Mac, What software do you use to cue up and patch midi? Sorry if that sounds basic, im a Lampy looking to get more experience in live sound.

 

As im using a PC, but do have Macs available, what software would you recommend for PC and Mac to cue up and patch?

 

Callum

 

 

[paulwyse]

Hi there, part of my job is a professional keyboard programmer and basically General midi and General Midi 2 has four banks ABCD. This aside certain MTI or JW scores are just copied from professional shows so may still have the keyboard programming codes still on the score. This is just a system of writing down patches.

 

Within the West End and UK tours the main keyboards used are Kurzweil K2600x, Yamaha Motif XS8, Roland Fantom G8 and then you have basic 88 key MIDI controllers running from computer bassed systems such as Logic Main Stage.

 

A music programmer would come along and program each keyboard used and then code the score telling you to patch change. All the keyboards I have mentioned are workstations and take thousands of patches internally. The Kurzweil for instance has 16 patches per letter and the whole alphabet of letters.... hence why in scores you get A015 etc......

 

Hope this clears up your thoughts?

 

Paul Wyse

[Kingstech]

A music programmer would come along and program each keyboard used and then code the score telling you to patch change. All the keyboards I have mentioned are workstations and take thousands of patches internally. The Kurzweil for instance has 16 patches per letter and the whole alphabet of letters.... hence why in scores you get A015 etc......

 

I dont think I explained it well..

Keys 1 has A001, A002 etc

Keys 2 has B001, B002 etc

Keys 3 hac C001, etc

Keys 4 has D001, etc

 

I did see somewehere ages ago that some shows use samples, could it be samples or patch changes these?

 

Also is there any free software we can use to change the patches of Keys, like have a set of cues and then press a trigger ie a note on a key and then it changes down the cue list. Just were trying to find some software to try and see if we can incorportate this in to our productions

[tom_the_LD]

Exactly what got me looking for the Mamma Mia Patches, as the 4 keyboards have A, B, C or D in the book they all had a A001, A002 - etc, no idea what half of them are, as you said its just listen and figure out.

 

Yeah that makes sense, you said your using a Mac, What software do you use to cue up and patch midi? Sorry if that sounds basic, im a Lampy looking to get more experience in live sound.

 

As im using a PC, but do have Macs available, what software would you recommend for PC and Mac to cue up and patch?

 

Callum

Interestingly, the West End version of Mamma Mia uses Mainstage on Macs for all the keyboards - not sure if the sounds come from the macs too or if the macs are just used to send MIDI messages to the keyboards to change the keyboards internal patches.

 

For Mac I'd recommend Mainstage - not sure for PC as I only really started this system when I had a Mac although all you'd really need is a program which allows you to send MIDI messages to a device.

 

Interestingly - you say you want to incorporate this technology into a show at school. Why? Do the keyboards not have internal memories? If I'm only using 1 or 2 voices per show, I'll often use this method as it's easier and saves taking all my gear!

 

 

Paul, what other shows do you know using Mainstage as Mamma Mia is the only one I've seen? Les Mis looked like it had some interesting software - but no idea what it was! And which shows are using Yamaha Motifs, as I love them, but only ever seem to see Roland, Kurzweil or Kawai on a regular basis!

[Kingstech]

Will look at mainstage.

 

We use the Roland XP-10's and usually one Stage piano. I say it because our MD is usually quite busy and so is the second keyboard during the show, usually having 2 keyboards each, I think having the voices programmed and cued up and pressing a midi trigger would be simpler than having to type the patch in. We would probably run the music from the Macs.

 

Callum